Every day, millions of individuals choose to engage in online transaction activities. Such transaction activities may include buying, selling, trading, and sharing of products and services, experiencing media such as videos, games, music, pictures, and written material, and participating in interactive experiences such as blogging, posting, tweeting, and engaging in social networks. In many instances, individuals engaging in online transaction activities with other individuals may be concerned with knowing specific information about the individuals they are dealing with online. Such information may be vital in determining whether a particular individual is willing and able to engage in a particular transaction activity with another individual.
For instance, a media operator (e.g., HBO®) may be operating a website on the Internet that makes available adult-themed media. For example, the media operator may have a website that may provide movies for visitors to the website to watch. Some of the movies may have an R-rating and the operator may want to confirm a particular visitor who has requested to view such a movie is of proper age. In other instances, an online merchant may want to verify the identity of a shopper prior to completing a sales transaction with the shopper on the merchant's website in order for the merchant to minimize fraud occurring in such transactions. For example, the merchant may want to confirm the individual using a particular credit card for payment is actually the individual the credit card was issued to.
In other instances, particular transaction activities may be subject to regulations. For example, Internet gambling and the sale of certain goods such as alcohol, fire arms, and/or adult materials may be restricted by one or more authorities (e.g., governments). Such restrictions may be based on a number of factors such as the age of the potential participate/purchaser and/or the location of the potential participate/purchaser. For instance, one specific example of such a potential regulation is the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act (“Act”) that has been proposed in the United States. This Act is aimed at providing a federal regulatory and enforcement framework under which Internet gambling operators must obtain licenses authorizing them to accept bets and wagers from individuals in the United States, on the condition they maintain effective protections. These protections include such items as: (1) ensuring an individual placing a bet or wager is of legal age as defined by the jurisdiction in which the individual is located; (2) ensuring an individual placing a bet or wager is physically located in a jurisdiction that permits Internet gambling; (3) protecting the privacy and security of the individual; (4) combating fraud and money laundering; and (5) combating compulsive gambling.
Thus, as a result, many online operators are in need of services and mechanisms to assist them in determining specific information about individuals the operators may engage in transaction activities with and/or to help these operators ensure certain protections are effectively enforced. Accordingly, various embodiments of the present invention involve systems and methods for providing such services and mechanisms. For instance, various embodiments described herein provide systems and methods for facilitating such services and technical mechanisms as registering users, validating users, underage controls, jurisdiction controls, compulsive behavior controls, settlement functions, and tax identification and collection. In addition, a number of these services and technical mechanisms are designed to ensure they are provided in an effective and efficient manner to help reduce computer processing capacity, minimize system requirements, and reduce memory usage.